The Air Patrol Part 24

"What's that?"

"I hope to goodness the wind won't be blowing a hurricane in the morning."

CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH

THE TOWER IN THE HILLS

There was between four and five hours for making the necessary arrangements. Bob soon had different sets of men working at different jobs. Some he ordered to prepare baskets of food and to fill several water-skins--the want of good water was perhaps Major Endicott's greatest peril. Others he instructed to fill more tins with stones and caps, in readiness for the final charge of dynamite, which he would himself place. While all this was in hand, he had a long talk with Gur Buksh and Ganda Singh, who turned out to be old comrades in arms. They both agreed that if the chota sahib should succeed in dispersing the tribesmen now besieging the tower, and in conveying food and water to the defenders, Endicott Sahib might be trusted to extricate himself and his men from their awkward position. That the dispersal was possible Bob had never doubted; no body of men could hold together under the staggering effect of bombs exploding in their midst. And after his talk with the Sikhs he felt rea.s.sured as to the further success of the scheme. Major Endicott was a cool-headed veteran, who would take things into his own hands on Lawrence's arrival, so that the plan would not miscarry through Lawrence's lack of military experience.

On leaving the Sikhs, Bob went along the pathway to the aeroplane platform. He could not trust any one but himself to prepare the machine for the morrow's flight. He spent a couple of hours in thoroughly overhauling it: cleaning the engine, examining every inch of the framework and the stays, oiling all the moving parts. Satisfied that all was in good order, he returned to the house. At this hour it was hardly worth while to go to bed, so he bathed, shaved, and dressed, and then sent for Fazl, to give him instructions.

Lawrence joined him at dawn. They went together to the hut where Ganda Singh lay, and the wounded man, refreshed with food and sleep, was able to explain more clearly now the whereabouts of Major Endicott and the operations of his besiegers.

"You'll tell him, of course, how we are situated here," said Bob, as they walked away together. "All being well I shall expect to see him in two or three days. You'll fly back in advance and tell me?"

"I dare say, but I shan't come until I see him safe on the march. I only hope I shan't be too late."

"I don't think you will be. I gather from what Ganda Singh said that starvation is the greatest danger, but they've got their horses in the last resort. There's no wind luckily; you couldn't have a finer day.

By the way, keep a look-out for the Kalmucks who got by last night.

Don't drop within range of them."

Rumours of what was afoot had run round the camp. Miners and servants were gathering in the compound to witness the departure of the aeroplane. As the boys walked towards the pathway Ditta Lal joined them. He wore his wonted air of cheerfulness.

"On behalf of establishment, sir, I bid you good luck and au revoir," he said. "Clouds have silver lining, sir. If report is true, we shall soon have felicity to see famous warrior in person; with due respect, and no derogation to present company, full-fledged British officer, when he takes command, will put rosy complexion on deplorable situation."

"Paint everything red, you mean?" said Bob gravely.

"Ruddy hue of health, sir," said the Babu, missing the point.

"Representative of august king-emperor, British flag, standard of freedom and all that----"

"Good-bye," said Lawrence, cutting him short. "Don't trouble to come any farther."

Bob went with him to the aeroplane platform.

"Good luck, old chap," he said, gripping Lawrence hard by the hand. He waited until the aeroplane had run off and soared out of sight, then returned in mingled hope and fear to the mine.

About a dozen miles up the valley Fazl caught sight of a number of men scuttling to cover among the rocks above the track. There was little doubt that these were the Kalmucks, who, finding themselves effectually cut off from their friends to the north, were probably hastening southward in search of provisions. Except for a few wild animals, the neighbourhood of the valley furnished no means of subsistence. There was a small hill-village about thirty miles from the mine, lying back some distance from the right bank. Perhaps the Kalmucks might find hospitality there.

Lawrence hoped that in the course of forty minutes he would come in sight of the hill-tower in which Major Endicott was besieged. From Ganda Singh's description he thought it must be identical with a tower which he had seen in the distance on one of his early trips with Bob up the river. It was a conspicuous object in the hilly landscape, and he had no fear of missing it, considering the immense expanse of country which lay open to observation from the aeroplane.

In spite of the particulars given by Ganda Singh, Lawrence felt that in approaching the tower his first care must be to reconnoitre the position thoroughly. Everything depended on his finding a convenient spot for landing, and this might be very difficult in such hilly country. The appearance of the aeroplane would of course put the enemy on their guard; but they would not know what to expect, and would probably be rather alarmed and mystified than informed. At the same time it would be a herald of hope to Major Endicott, and prepare him to take instant advantage of any diversion which it might effect in his favour.

When Lawrence had been flying for about twenty minutes he became somewhat uneasy at a sudden freshening of the wind, which blew in uncertain gusts from the mountains on his right. Since pa.s.sing the Kalmucks he had kept fairly close to the river, but when the machine began to rock under these invisible eddies he thought it the safer course to rise to a considerable height. The morning air was so exhilarating, and the view of endless snow-capped heights and pine-clad ravines so superb, that only the intense cold, of which he was now conscious in spite of the summer sun, checked his ascension. On the left stretched the Pamirs, backed by peak after peak of some of the loftiest and most majestic mountains in the world. In front and on the right the Himalaya range merged into the Hindu Kush. Huge ma.s.ses of cloud rolled up and down the rugged faces of the mountains, causing moment by moment wonderful changes in their aspect. Some of the peaks seemed to have covered themselves with an umbrella of fleecy billowy wool as a shield against the kindling sunbeams.

The enormous scale of this panorama defied perspective and gave a false idea of distance. Lawrence knew that peaks which, clearly limned against the sky, might be thought to be ten or fifteen miles away, were in reality more than a hundred. But for the urgency of his mission, he felt that he would have liked to sail on and on in this empyrean height, exploring regions never trodden by the foot of man.

All the time, Fazl kept a keen eye on the track and the river, winding along hundreds, even thousands, of feet below. The hill-tower lay somewhat to the west of the road which the Appletons had travelled with Major Endicott several months before, and from this road the track leading to the mine branched. The Gurkha knew the country pretty well.

Fast as the aeroplane flew, he distinguished without hesitation the junction of the roads, and at his word Lawrence altered his course and, leaving the valley, steered over the hills on his right hand.

Very soon Fazl was able to descry the hill-tower in the far distance.

The aeroplane was flying at the rate of at least a mile a minute; but minute after minute pa.s.sed, and yet the tower seemed little nearer.

When at last Lawrence had come close enough to it to be able to distinguish its general features, he saw that it was a single square-built tower of the usual Afghan type, perched on a small hill that rose sharply from the surrounding country. The side nearest him overhung an almost perpendicular declivity. Though solidly constructed in appearance, it was little more than a ruin. The top had partially fallen away, and in the wall facing him there was a long jagged fissure.

While still at some distance, Lawrence heard rifle-shots, though neither he nor Fazl could as yet see any signs of the enemy. He felt his heart thumping. He was still in time, then; for if all was over the firing would have ceased. Planing down in a long glide, he pa.s.sed over the tower, still at a considerable alt.i.tude, and then suddenly caught sight of an encampment in a nullah on the farther side. In the brief moment of his crossing he was not able to get more than a glimpse of it; the nullah was so deep, and the encampment encompa.s.sed so closely by shrubs, dwarf pines, and other trees, that he might have missed it altogether but for a thin column of smoke arising from a fire in the bottom. But his rapid glance was enough for rea.s.surance; the camp would have been struck if the tower was captured; it was clear that the Major was still holding out.

Dropping still lower, he began to sweep round in a circle. Before he reached the nullah again Fazl pointed out to him a number of isolated dots on the rugged surface below, spread over an extensive patch of ground. Some were small, others larger, and as he flew by Fazl explained that they were groups of the enemy, who had posted themselves wherever the nature of the ground gave them cover from the fire of the occupants of the tower. They were disposed in a rough semicircle about the western wall, in which there was a door. The approach on this side was by a steep slope; on the other side the tower was apparently inaccessible.

Between the wall and this semicircle of besiegers were scattered at irregular intervals a number of dark forms.

"Dead!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Fazl.

They were evidently the bodies of men who had fallen in attempting to rush the place. Ganda Singh had mentioned that on the day he left the Afghans had made a vigorous a.s.sault, but were beaten back with heavy loss.

Bringing the aeroplane round so as to pa.s.s again over the encampment, Lawrence noticed a number of horses picketed near the rough huts. The Gurkha cried excitedly that the animals were kicking and straining at their ropes, and men were rushing to hold them. The noise of the engine had thrown them into a state of blind terror. Two or three broke away, and galloped madly up the nullah.

Several shots were fired at the aeroplane. Lawrence was somewhat surprised that the men were not struck with panic, like their horses, at the appearance of this strange booming monster of the air. It did not occur to him until afterwards that rumours of it must have been carried far and wide through the country for months past. Men who had seen it in its flights had described it to their neighbours or to wanderers whom they met in the hills; and although few, perhaps, of these tribesmen now present had actually seen it before, doubtless many of them had heard more or less veracious accounts of it. The frantic terror of the ponies suggested to Lawrence an idea on which he acted immediately. He abandoned his original purpose of making a preliminary reconnaissance of the whole position and then retiring to a distance to work out a plan.

To a mounted force there is nothing so demoralizing as the loss of their horses. Lawrence knew this, and in a flash saw also that the Major, if he should escape from the tower, would have little to fear from an enemy pursuing on foot. He resolved therefore to attempt to stampede all the horses, and take advantage of the resulting confusion.

By the time he had come to this determination he was some distance past the nullah. Telling Fazl to drop a bomb among the horses when he again crossed it, he rose rapidly to a height of about a thousand feet, wheeled round, and swooped down in a long incline towards the camp. He scarcely realized that he was taking his life in his hands as he flew almost within point-blank range. Nor had he calculated on the possible effect of the coming explosion on the aeroplane. When he arrested his downward flight he was so near the ground that the bursting of the bomb set the machine rocking violently, and for a few moments he could scarcely control it. Cool-headed marksmen could then have taken fatal aim at him; but the Afghans were fascinated and paralysed by his headlong descent, and while they were still wondering and dreading what it might portend, the explosion of the bomb within a few yards of them struck them with terror.

Lawrence swept round to observe the effect of this bolt from the blue.

A great troop of horses was galloping wildly along the nullah to the west. He caught sight of their forms, black, brown and grey, wherever there were breaks among the trees. Farther up the nullah, where the sides were less steep, the frantic animals were dashing across the country in all directions. Beneath, a few lay motionless on the ground.

Loth as he was to destroy or maim the unoffending beasts, he felt that this was not an occasion for half measures: there was too much at stake.

In their panic flight it was inevitable that many of the horses must dash themselves to pieces in the ravines and fissures with which the country was seamed. To prevent the rallying of the rest, he set off in pursuit. Sweeping the ground like a shepherd's dog after a flock of sheep, he flew backwards and forwards and from side to side at the heels of the terrified animals. No more bombs were necessary. The whirr of the propeller behind them drove them on at the same mad rush, and in a quarter of an hour there was not a living horse within several miles of the encampment.

On returning towards the tower, Lawrence was surprised to see that the groups of Afghans had disappeared from around it. But as he crossed the nullah there were bursts of smoke from among the trees and the undergrowth, and above the hum of the propeller he heard the characteristic whistle of bullets. Later he discovered that several holes had been drilled in the planes. The firing ceased as suddenly as it had begun. Crossing the nullah almost at right angles, the aeroplane was visible for only a few seconds to the men hidden in the bottom.

From an embrasure high up in the tower a white handkerchief was fluttering in the breeze. Lawrence wished that he had some means of communicating instantly with the Major; but the attack from which he had just escaped proved that he could not venture to alight, nor could he be of any further service to the little garrison until the nullah had been cleared. It was necessary to drive the men up the ravine in the same direction as he had already driven the horses. There might be more difficulty in this, for the enemy were completely concealed by the trees and undergrowth, so that he could not tell exactly where they were. The only plan that promised complete success was to fly some distance down the ravine, and then work up it, dropping bombs when he approached the spot where the firing had broken out.

In a few brief sentences he explained his purpose to Fazl. Making a wide sweep he came back to the nullah half a mile to the east; then, reducing speed to the minimum, but keeping at a good alt.i.tude, he followed the winding course of the gully. The enemy played into his hands. Another burst of smoke revealed their whereabouts. Fazl instantly dropped a bomb, and turning to watch the effect, cried out that a dense cloud of smoke and dust had arisen from the scene of the explosion. Lawrence wheeled round again, described a wide semicircle, pa.s.sing immediately above the tower, and, regaining the nullah, repeated the manoeuvre.

This time Fazl reported that he saw men among the trees, running up the ravine. The enemy could scarcely have chosen a less secure shelter.

The explosion of a bomb in so constricted a s.p.a.ce must be many times more destructive than in the open. But Lawrence had no inclination towards needless slaughter. His object would be achieved if he drove the men away as he had driven the horses. Knowing that they were on the run, he dropped another bomb to speed their flight; then swept round again, and pursued the same tactics as had already proved so effectual.

When the enemy reached the less wooded part of the nullah, he found it easy to hover about their rear, and, without the further use of bombs, to impel them to the most desperate exertions by the mere harrying pursuit of the aeroplane.

He was not content until he had driven them many miles up the nullah.

Whenever they showed a disposition to break away into the open country to right or left, a swoop of the aeroplane in that direction was sufficient to send them scurrying back. In their haste and panic they did not halt to fire again, and Lawrence was at length satisfied that even if they should recover their nerve and courage, they were too far away to trouble the garrison of the tower for at least a couple of hours.

On nearing the tower, he saw that several figures had emerged from the door at the foot. He glided down to within a few yards of it, and shouted a greeting to Major Endicott, who waved his hand in response.

Then he sought for a landing-place. The ground in the immediate vicinity was too broken to allow of a safe descent; but after circling round once or twice, he discovered a s.p.a.ce sufficiently flat and open for his purpose about a quarter of a mile away. Alighting there, he left the aeroplane in Fazl's charge, and, feeling very shaky on his legs after the exhausting and nervous work of the past two hours, he walked back to meet the British officer.